Building construction



Aug. 9, 1932. H. W REEL 1,870,422

BUILDING CONSTRUGTI ON Filed Jan. 2, 1929 B f mp ATTORN Patented Aug. 9, 1932 l UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlcE HERBERT 'W`. Bm, Ol' HINSDAJE, ILLNOI, ASBIGNOB T0 UNITED STATB Gmifx OOIIPANY, OF OHHIOAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION Ol' ILLINOIS scimmie ooirsrauc'riou p Application lied January 8, 1929. Serial 30.429,824.

This invention relates to improvements in building construction, and more particularly to tiles, slab or blocks used in the erection of roofs or oors. i

y, It has been customary to employ tiles of light weight material, such as gypsum, with metal reinforcing members cast therein for roofs and floors in which the tiles are suported upon metal structural members forming the purlins, subpurlins or beams of the buildin An oliject of this invention is to provide such a tile with the ends of the reinforcing members protruding from the ends thereof to coact with the urlins to form a rigid and monolithic roo or floor construction.

Another object of the invention is to provide a precast tile which rests at its ends on structural support members such as a rail,

said tiles havin square ends forming a clearance above the all of the rail, so that grout may be poured into said clearance and fiow around the rail to substantially embed same in said grout; also to improve building constructions in other respects hereinafter specified and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of my improved precast tile,

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the tile,

Fig. 3 is an end view of the tile,

Fig. 4 is an elevation of one of the rein- 85 forcing bars,

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view of a floor constructed according to my improved desi ,and I Fig. 6 is a fragmentary plan view of the iioor shown iii Fig. 5.

In the preferre form of my invention, the steel supporting members, beams or p urlins, are composed of ordinary railroad rails, but any other desired shape of structural member ma be used. This rail 10 usually consists o a base 11, a web 12 and a ball 13. These rails 10 are spaced apart a predetermined distance and my improved `building tiles 14 are ositioned with their ends 15 restl0 ing upon the bases 11 of said rails. These tile are of suicient len h to t properly between the balls 13 of t e rails with a s ght clearance 16 betweenthe end of the tile and the ball to permit grout 17 to iiow downwardly about the web 12 and substantiall embed the rail in the grout. The clearance a ove the balFs 13 between the ends of the tiles 14 is also filled with the grout so thata level surface is provided in the plane of the upper surface of the tiles.

My im roved tiles are characterized in that rein orcing bars having horizontal sections 18 pass longitudinali through the tiles these bars preferably beihg arranged one pair in each tile. The outer ends of the dat sections 18 of the bars are bent upwardly to form inclined integral bar sections 19 and then are bent again horizontall to form sections 20'which are substantial y arallel to the sections 18. The bars are so shaped that they follow a line through the tile which is best adapted to resist the stresses in the tile when supported on the purlins. The extreme ends of the reinforcing bars are bent downwardly, either during manufacture or at the job, to form hooks 21 which are spaced apart from the ends of the tile and adapted to extend over the balls 13 of the rails and thus form an interloclrin system of reinforcing for the precast tile. iateral reinforcing mesh or rods 22 are embedded in the tiles and extend from one reinforcing rod to the other. The reinforcing bars may be threaded `through the mesh 22 or may be connected thereto by welding and the like.

A pair of grooves 23 is formed in each end of a tile, these grooves being adapted to receive hooks 21 of an adjacent tile. The reinforcing rods preferably extend at a slight angle to the longitudinal edges of the tile so that protruding ends of the reinforcing bars and the ooves 23 will match with a similar end of t e adjoining tile as seen in Fig. 6. It will be noted that both ends of each tile are alike in that they can be formed from end mold members which are alike thus simplifying the molding operation. zI'he grout 17 bonds with the ends of the tiles and engages under shoulders 24 of the balls 13 of the rails so as to prevent the tiles from being 10 lifted out of place b tornadoes or other extraneous stresses. rooves 25 alon the 1ongitudinal edges of the tile are provi ed so that grout can be poured therein to give a smooth, upper surface to the floor.

t should be noted that my improved construction for buildings provides a monolithic floor or roof in which the precast tiles are provided with reinforcing members which coact with the beams or purlins to make an interlocking reinforcing s stem along the floor or roof, with a monolithic construction formed bythe grout 26. In the use of psum materials this construction is especia y etlicient and easy to apply. Other materials such as concrete may be used for the tiles and grout, if desire I would state in conclusion that, while the illustrated example constitutes a practical embodiment of my invention, I do not wish to limit myself precisely to these details since, manifestly, the same can be considerably vafried without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent In a buildin tile, a rectangular mass of recast cementitious material, and reinforcing members extending through said tile with the ends of said reinforcing members extending beyond the ends of said tile, the ends of said reinforcin members being adapted to be bent downwar ly upon supporting members to form hook ends, said reinforcing members extending at an angle to the longitudinal edges of said tile, the ends of said tile being provided with grooves for the reception kof the hook ends of the reinforcing members of adjacent tile, said hook ends and grooves on one end ofeach tile being substantially similar in spaced relation with the grooves and hook ends on the opposite end of said tile.

. HEBERT W. REEL. 

